Sad to see Logan Air leaving STN for LHR next month :(

Not sure the people of Londonderry would agree, opens the world up to them and saves travel to Belfast to catch other flights.
Ryanair do Manchester so they might jump in as Ryanair UK feeder?

Flights always full to Stansted those people didn't want the world to open up for them,purely a prestige decision by the airline.

I was thinking more that the loss of one of STN's airlines to LHR will equate to slightly less airline diversity and choice at Stansted which is a shame :(

Prestige? There are two really clear reasons to try this from LHR.
1. It's actually in London, on the Tube with red buses, Oyster and now the Elizabeth line so getting to your final destination will likely become much easier.
2. Even without the expected BA codeshare, the amount of people now able to make a one stop connection from long haul to City of Derry is now greatly enhanced. It's a driver of INBOUND tourism, the same reason Inverness were so supportive of BA relaunching LHR.

The spoiler here might be Ryanair UK looking at STN-LDY once more which would kill Loganair's LHR business case at birth.

For years, people complained that UK airports in economically struggling regions were not linked to the UK's main hub airport and thus found it harder to attract trade. This was even one of those "after Brexit this will be solved" claims.
DND and LDY have now got what they needed. It seems unreasonable for STN fanboys to complain that the regions get what they really need.

Disclaimer - I've flown to or from STN over 300 times, far more than any other airport - I am not anti-STN.

How exactly are PSOs funded? Are Loganair paid a set fee regardless of how many pax they fly or is it a set figure per pax?

Does flying to Heathrow potentially allow them to maximise profits by charging travelling pax extra for the privilege?

Or does flying to Heathrow potentially allow them to maximise profits by flying passengers to actually where they want to go? Remember the aim of the PSO is to maximise access so it makes sense to operate to the airport with the biggest global reach.

I cannot disagree with your statement, but Loganair won the PSO operating LDY-SEN where it started from. Clearly global reach wasn’t uppermost on their minds at that time.

No - the PSO was for London, and they took what was available.

Cheers.

I thought the PSO were more about just a link to London for 'social and economic reasons' but that's quite vague so I guess could easily also include access.

Actually it started at STN, got taken over by Logan after the demise of BMI, shifted to SEN, came back to STN in early Lockdown 1 because it made no sense for SEN to open the place for a handful of daily passengers, and stayed at STN.

Of course the PSO itself started following FR withdrawing from the London route, which was also a long-standing STN route. Sometime prior to that the old Jersey European also did STN-LDY, but there was a gap in service between.

Gate numbering
 

Something I've never really understood at STN is the gate numbering system. I remember flying from Stansted many times when it was under BAA ownership, and swear the signs to security (which was in a landlocked, central location at the time, which I think is now part of the departure lounge, unless I'm wrong) all had "gates 1-99" on them. I've never understood this, as I'm sure there were/are nowhere near that number of gates split across the 3 satellites, and I also don't recall the APV being in use either. Similarly, gates 20-39 are marked as satellite 2 gates, but again, when departing from here, I only recall ever seeing signs for gates 29-34, and 36-38, so that makes only 9 gates total. Anyone know why this is?

Satellite 2 modernisation project
 

A very interesting read from Weston Williamson & Partners regarding a project to revamp and modernise Satellite 2. Anyone know if this is actually happening/what the progress is on this?

Link :https://www.westonwilliamson.com/pro...-modernisation

These plans sound similar to what was planned pre-covid when MAG were going to add the new arrivals building, redesign the current building and upgrade SAT2 and SAT3. No plans are currently in place for anything like this unfortunately.

Ahh, a shame :( :( unfortunately there is no date anywhere on the webpage as to when these plans relate to, so it isn't clear if this project was intended pre-pandemic or not, and to be honest, I don't recall having seen this pre-covid. They look great through, and I must say, a long overdue upgrade for SAT 2 if it comes to fruition.

I can’t remember the gate numbers ‘back in the day’ at SAT1, or if they have changed? But I can confirm that the transit system (APV) has been there and in use since the current terminal opened in 1991. It never used to go as far as SAT2 however. That addition came later.

Ahh sorry, my mistake, I meant that I never recall seeing gates 90-93 being in use under BAA. These were only brought back into use by MAG in 2016. So never got why BAA had signs quoting gates 1-99.

Would a big sign saying "Gates 1-99" be an effective way of communicating to passengers who speak little English "go this way to your gate, and don't ask questions" ?

The Track Transit System (TTS) and Advance Passenger Vehicle (APV) are two separate things. The TTS takes you to Gate 1-19 and 20-39 and the APV is Gates 90-93.